I will fight for you
by mgunh1
Summary: Bad luck brought me here, or was it fate? It doesn't matter, not now. I am in this new world and I must survive even if I can never hope to go home. Rated T for language violence & other stuff. Please R&R.
1. Chapter 1

**Author's notes: I don't do this bit often, but I will try to do it more. It's probably the reason the rest of my stories bombed **

**Anyway**, **I do not own pokemon, but that goes with out saying. If I _did_ however, it would probably be a lot darker and a lot more fun, hehehe...**

* * *

Pain.

All that existed at that moment was the pain. I could not open my eyes to see what was causing it, partly because I didn't _want_ to see what was causing it and partly because they were holding themselves shut instinctively, trying to block some of the pain - fat lot of good that did. I cried out in a silent, breathless scream through the pain that wracked my body. It was like being burnt, frozen, drowning and electrocuted all at the same time. On top of that, I had a migraine that could kill a bull elephant stone dead. That wasn't even the worst part. My mind was perfectly clear. It was as if I was being kept from unconsciousness - as though someone was getting some sort of sick satisfaction from my pain. Actually, the worst bit was that single thought; that single memory; that single sentence that echoed through my head. It was the last thing I said to my friends and family, everyone I had cared about up to this moment, mere seconds before this. Before the pain. Before any of this.

"Hay, what's the worst that could happen?"


	2. Chapter 2

Ok, so I guess you guys are all going, what the fuck? Am I right? Yeah, thought so. I think I owe it to you to at least bring you up to speed until the whole "oh god it burns" scenario, I guess.

It had been a Friday afternoon and I was driving home from school. Hold it; I know what you are thinking. He's driving from school? Well, come on I _am_ old enough to hold a licence, well a provisionary at least. I am eighteen and in year twelve. It is not much of a stretch to imagine that, is it? Ok, so I was kept back a year in grade ten, but it was my own choice. It was completely voluntary, I swear. I had been going through a few rough patches in my personal life at that point and my grades suffered because of it. I had to not only move schools, but also entire _cities _and on top of that, my parents nearly divorced half-way through the year. Note the word 'nearly'. They're still not exactly a happy couple yet, but they're getting there. We had to move due to my dad getting a job further inland, in a 'rural' community. Well, that's what they told us it was. I was expecting something a bit more, well, rural when I got there. However, I was reminded that many of Australia's inner townships had yet to remove their 'rural' title even if Toowoomba _is_ the largest inland city in Australia. Therefore, my dad got his rural cash bonus as a doctor in a 'rural' area and the closest we got to the 'outback' were the truckies going between the cattle stations and Brisbane that used the main street since the by-pass hadn't even been started yet.

Um… I'm rambling aren't I? Sorry, I'll try not to do that too much, K?

Ok, so it was a Friday afternoon and I was driving home. My plan was to race home, grab my wallet, leave a note to tell my parents were I was going to be for the next few hours and then hit the mall with a few mates of mine by the time three o'clock rolled around. Ok, I'll be the first to admit that my plans never go off without hitting some kind of hitch, and this time was no different. Nevertheless, even I was surprised when my plan hit a snag before it had even started. Well, to be fair, the snag hit me. And no, it wasn't a pedestrian. I am not _that_ bad a driver and I don't care _what_ the old geezers say, not all us teens are bad drivers. I had been driving past some road works when I heard the loudest bang I had ever heard. It is had to explain until you hear the noise a car makes when it hits something solid, but you get the picture. At first, I thought a rock must have been thrown from the machines, so as soon as I had a chance I pulled over. Luckily (or unluckily, depending on your point of view) I owned my own car, so when I saw the dent on the bonnet, I thanked that single fact and the fact that my parents weren't going to kill me for it. Ok, so my car wasn't exactly fab to begin with, just a second hand (probably third or fourth by the look of things), two door lancer that my dad picked up on the cheep (I'm not sure of the actual price, but it was under ten grand – good price for a car, really). However, this was the first real ding it had gotten and it was a beauty. The dent was the size of my head and, due to the position of the said dent and the fact that I was going at about 10 km per hour past the road works, the offending object was still there. I was quite surprised to find that is was a golden orb, roughly the size of a tennis ball. There was no way that this little thing had caused that much damage. From my limited understanding of my physics classes that my parents made me do, I guesstimated that this little ball would had to have been going pretty damn fast to have cause this much damage and the angle suggested it would have come straight down. When I looked back to the road works, I couldn't see anything that might have caused it to fly out like that, let alone at the speed required to dent the car that badly. I sighed and pocketed the ball. It would make something to talk about with my mates, I figured. The rest of my plan went, well, according to plan. The most exciting thing after that incident was nearly braining myself when I stood on one of my little sister's stupid toys and went for 'a short trip', barely missing the kitchen table on my way down.

It was ten to three when I got to the mall and Nick was already there waiting. I waved and called out to him as I walked up to the front entrance and he waved back, yelling something unintelligible. I figured out it was a warning when Adrian tackled me from behind. For a guy about 4 foot 10, a whole foot shorter than me, he was bloody strong. When he has you pinned, you aren't going anywhere, no matter how big you are. "Ok! I give. Let me go, ya great lunk." I called from beneath him. He laughed then helped me up.

"Well, you should be more aware of your surroundings, shouldn't you?" He quipped, faking a sage-like tone. I just laughed, then put him in a headlock and gave him a noogie.

"Now who should be more aware?" I laughed as he struggled uselessly. I mightn't look it, but I'm just as strong as he is.

"Ok, that's enough. Let Midget go Mark." Nick said as he walked up, "I don't want you killing him; it'll take forever to get the stains out. You know that."

"You know," I said, giving Adrian one last shove, "you're right. It ain't worth it, is it? Anyway, aren't elephants an endangered specie?"

"That's bull elephant to you." Adrian quipped, giving a fake show of disrespect. He then turned and looked up at Nick. That's not saying much since he has to look up to pretty much everyone, but even I have to look up at Nick. He's a good six foot something and built like a stick insect. However, with the amount he eats, I'm surprised that he fails to put on _any_ weight. The bottomless pit, AKA Nick, could eat you out of house and home and still be hungry enough to eat the neighbour's house too. "Anyway, what's so important that you had to drag us out on a perfect Friday afternoon to go to the mall, hmm?" He was answered with a slap to the back of his head from me.

"Dumbass, the Dawn of War tourney is on today." I said, somewhat pissed at his sieve-like memory, "Now if Jacob and Rob would get here, we could sign up and get our team together."

"Oh, right." Was all Adrian said on the matter. Nick was about to call them, when the two walked up behind him and gave him one hell of a scare. Well, they would have, if Nick scares. Too much time watching horror movies will do that to a guy. Anyway, he just turned to them and gave each a whack for making them wait, then another for trying to scare him. Out of the five of us, I was the second tallest and silently proud of that fact. Both Jacob and Robert were about five and a half foot, still five inches shorter than I was, but still tall enough to avoid Adrian's title of Midget. It was something Nick thought of in all spontaneous his creativity and it stuck, much to Adrian's dismay.

We walked past the mall to the Gaming lounge and signed in our team. We got creamed in the finals. Hey, story of my life. Well, we still got the consolation prize; a cool hundred dollars each, not bad for two and a half hours of game play, if I do say so myself. We had made our way back to the mall plaza for a snack before heading home, when I remembered the ball. Not wanting to take it out in public in case someone nicked it, I asked the guys if they would mind coming back over to my place to show them and for a bit of a celebration at getting to the finals. We clamoured into my car and we headed off, swinging by the pizza shop on the way. I had already planed a little after-game party, anyway.

It was six by the time we got to my place and, of course, my parents were home. We spent the next half hour making jokes, eating, drinking and generally having a good time. Being the only driver, I did the good thing and opted out of having any alcohol, instead preferring to drink my fill of soft drink. Thinking about it now, I should have drunk as much as I wanted; with any luck, I would have passed out and thus prevented any of this from happening, but there is no use crying over spilt milk, now is there? Eventually, the conversation turned to the dent in my car's bonnet and I told them what happened. I showed them the golden ball and it got passed around. It was Nick that found the latch and opened up the ball. The entire top half opened up and inside was a plethora of digital read outs, exposed wires and, well, _things_, for want of a better word. Dead centre was a red button about the size of my thumb nail. We were all trying to figure out what it could be, poking things, speaking our theories, but in the end it all came to naught – none of us really knowing what we were talking about. I pointed out this fact and there was a murmur of disappointed agreement. Then Jacob had that wonderful idea.

"Why don't we push the button and find out just what it does?" He asked. We all agreed that this was the best course of action, but none were game to try it. Eventually I was forcefully volunteered to try it, seeing as I was the one who found it in the first place. I looked up for a moment, unsure if I should. But seeing the faces of both my friends and family, I smiled and spoke those immortal last words.

"Hay, what's the worst that could happen?" I push the button my world turned to chaos.


	3. Chapter 3

**Ok, yes I know this chapter is a bit tedious, but this just explains a few things and gets some stuff cleared up before the main plot kicks in. So just hang in there!  
**

**Also, just to clarify: **

-_this is telepathy- _

_this is thought_

"This is normal speech"

* * *

As soon as the button was pressed, the pain kicked in. I have already covered what it was like, that mind-numbing, excruciating, unholy pain. I have no idea how long it lasted, it could have been mere seconds or thousands of years – time seemed to have no meaning. However, it was still long enough for me to wish that I could just die, right then and there, rather than deal with it any more. When it did stop, I half feared I had gotten my wish. When I opened my eyes, it only seemed to reinforce my belief that I _had_ died. It was only when I realised that I was still holding the ball, and that it seemed to be projecting a force field of some sort, that I understood that I wasn't. As far as I could tell, I was no where, literally. All that greeted me was complete void of nothingness that hurt the eyes to look at. I closed my eyes and somehow drifted off to sleep, probably due to the pain and the sudden drop in adrenaline.

I awoke to a strange red light. It seemed to be emanating from a small orb about the size of my fist. Of course, I quickly realised that it was only small due to it actually being quite far away. My little bubble swiftly moved towards the light, seemingly drawn to it. It seemed like an eternity before I started to get scared, then again, my watch had stopped, so I had absolutely no idea how long it really took; could have been a few seconds, really. Nevertheless, when the red sphere blocked out all sight of anything around it and seemed to dominate the entire forward view, coupled with the fact that I still seemed to be hurtling towards it at a breakneck pace, I was more scared then I had ever been in my life. When actually hit it, I lasted long enough to see an explosion of red before passing out.

I awoke to the feeling of soft, dew laden grass and I managed to convince myself that it was all just some bizarre, alcohol induced dream. You know, it actually worked, right up until the point were I opened my eyes and saw the night sky whizzing by at a billion light years a second. You know what the first logical idea my brain could come up with at that very moment? Scream. Loud. I happily complied.

When my throat began to scream back at me that nothing was going to get me and that I should stop screaming, lest my own vocal cords strangle me to death, I stopped and decided to have a sticky beak. When I had finally stood up, which was a feat unto itself considering the fact that the ground seemed to be constantly moving and that my legs felt like I hadn't used them in weeks, I quickly deduced that the 'ground' was defiantly not a planet. It was at a rough guess, maybe one or two kilometres wide and a good solar system long. Yes, you heard me correctly. It was so long that I could not see the actual end of whatever it was I was standing on. It also seemed to have a decent enough atmosphere and radiation shielding, that much I guessed because I was, frankly, still alive. What I had originally thought of as grass actually turned out to be some sort of moss and it seemed to cover the entire, err… whatever it was.

By this point, I had managed to recover enough for my brain to register something else quite shocking. The hand I was using to feel the 'grass' wasn't mine. That little revelation would have opened another half hour of screaming, if my throat wasn't already about to sign my own death warrant. So instead, I settled for a simple panic attack. After a few minutes, my breathing slowed enough for me to think in a semi-rational way. First, I convinced myself that this _was_ my hand and that it was just furry and shaped differently; very differently, to be exact. I seemed to have lost a finger somewhere, resulting in me only having three somewhat stubby fingers and a thumb, which, thank god, was still opposable. My palm and finger tips were padded, like that of a dog or cat's, and felt like soft leather. Each of my fingers, including my thumb, ended in a short and _very_ sharp, hooked claw. Both my hands were furry, excluding the padded areas, and the fur was a dark grey in colour, which slowly bled into a light yellowy-cream colour along my arms. The pads were the colour of tanned skin. I also noted that I wasn't wearing any clothes, which really didn't surprise me much as it paled in comparison to _absolutely everything else_. It didn't really matter anyway, since you couldn't see anything under all the fur; which also didn't really matter since there wasn't anyone else around that I could see. My chest had the same dark gray fur as my hands, which, once the rib cage stopped, turned back into the yellow-cream colour until it hit my knees, then it when back to being dark gray. I stood up to get a better look at myself and nearly toppled over, having put my weight on my ankles; which were now half way up my shins. After a few minutes of learning to stand, I figured out that I should just let instinct kick in. Once I did, everything became _much_ easier. Looking at the way my knees bent in an oddly lupine manner, it immediately reminded of how a Lucario stands and I began to wonder if I had become one. Once I looked at my three toed feet, I dismissed that idea pretty quickly. Each of my toes, excluding the inner toe, which was sitting half way between my 'foot' and my ankle, sported the same sort of claws that my hand did. Lucarios don't have claws and, as if to further differentiate myself from them, I didn't have a chest spike and I was pretty sure I didn't have one on my back either. I sat back down and subsequently yelped in pain when I sat on my tail. My mouth finally kicked into gear at that point.

"How the fuck did I get a tail?!" I more-or-less yelled at no-one in particular, "No, scratch that, how the fuck did I get _any of this?!_" I ranted like this for quite some time, getting slowly more and more explicit in my language until I got tired from yelling and getting no answers. I sat back down again, being careful not to sit on my tail again, sighed and took another look at my tail. It rather reminded me of a cat's; that odd cylinder shape. Like the rest of my body, the fur on my tail was short and coloured a dark gray, right up until the tip which suddenly became much longer, comparatively, and fiery red. The tassel, for want of a better word, was sprayed out and somewhat messy, giving it a wild look. I stretched around to look at my back and discovered two things. One, the dark gray colouration didn't stop at the rib cage, like on my chest, but instead followed my spine; thus the reason why my tail was dark gray, I guessed. Secondly, I discovered that I was much more limber than I was as a human. I reasoned that my spine probably wasn't as rigid as my human spine was, giving rise to a few obvious advantages and disadvantages. The first was that it meant that I was much more flexible than I could have ever hoped to be as a human and that I was probably less likely to beak my spine. The disadvantages being that I could possibly twist my spinal cord, or maybe even pinch it between my vertebrae. Moreover, if my spine was less rigid, maybe my other bones were less well connected too – which could mean I could dislocate an arm or something easier. Of course, I only knew for certain that I was more flexible; I was new to this body and I wasn't exactly a doctor, so my guesses were less than educated. I began to wonder what colour the fur on my face was and, not having a mirror, I opted to try another method. I felt around on top of my head and 'found' my hair. For some bizarre reason, it stood straight up and didn't seem to like being pulled down; every time I tried to yank a cluster down so I could see it, it would only get so far before rocketing straight back to were it was to begin with. Although, as with everything, persistence and boredom have its rewards; after much pulling, it began to loosen up a bit and, with every tug, it came further and further down until I could see it. It was that same yellowy cream as most of my body seemed to be, so I logically assumed that my face was the same colour. I was surprised to find, however, that the tips of my hair slowly bled into the same fiery red as the tip of my tail, only slightly lighter in shade – of course that could have just been the fact that it was much closer to my face than my tail. I released my hair, expecting it to shoot straight back up like before. It didn't, instead it when back up a bit and just hung there, giving me an interesting looking bang. I stopped playing with my hair then, realising that I could probably do that to the rest of my hair and I didn't want to look any weirder. Moving my hands around the rest of my face, I determined that my ears were lupine and furry, with little tufts of hair on the ends. I also seemed to have a slightly snout-like face – my jaw and nose bleeding into each other and jutting out slightly. As a human, my canine teeth were already quite noticeably long and it was no different here. Running my tongue against my teeth, I found that most were quite sharp and pointed, but my back teeth were like my human molars – grinding teeth. I guessed I was mostly a carnivore from the shape of my teeth, which would be very useful information latter on. Thinking about food, I realised I was hungry. _But I only ate a little while ago…_ I thought, but mentally slapped myself with my own reply, _That's how it seems to you, but for all you know you could have been out for days._ I swore again, this day was just getting worse and worse. Suddenly, with my new-found heightened senses, I smelled something that put me right on edge. Seconds latter, I began to get drowsy. I fought it as hard as I could, but I was soon fast asleep.

* * *

_-Wake up, we're here.-_ Said a slightly feminie voice in my head as I slowly came too, slowly drifting from my dreams of pink bunnies and floating ice cream. (I hate those ones, they never have chocolate...) -_You know, you have a mouth that could put the entire Navy to shame.-_

"And, where is here exactly?" I replied, my sleep addled brain not registering the complete oddness of the situation. Once it had, I shook my head, "Ok, that was just plain odd."

_-No, it is called telepathy. Anyway, I have to tell you a few things before you get going._- Replied the voice, completely ignoring the first question. It normally takes me a few minutes to really come to, but the word 'telepathy' made me sit up and take notice. I glanced around and everything came back in one great, big rush of memories; the pain, the glowing red sphere, the waking on something in deep space covered in grassy moss (which I noted I was still on), finding out I wasn't human – everything. Well, almost everything. I had forgotten that I had a rather sore throat from screaming so much and when I was about to yell in fright once more, the scream was immediately put on hold as my throat screamed right back at me. _-There is no use in getting all worked up, it won't help and will just mean that we have to wait longer before I can send you on your way. So sit down, shaddup and we will begin.-_

"Uh, yes ma'am?" I croaked.

_-Good. Now, I have no idea who you are or why you are so important, but my leader told me to help you, so I am, k?-_ It said, _-Now, it seems that you have come from another universe, which I find surprising since I only spend _my entire existence keeping the wall of reality stable! _Anyway, it has happened and you are now stuck here so, I am your introduction to this universe and the planet you will be assigned. My leader thinks you were once human, is that right?-_ It was a few seconds before I responded, having taken in a hell of a lot of information just then and finding it hard to swallow, prompting her (I was sure it was a her by this point) to ask again.

"Uh, yeah – yeah I was, err, am. I think…" I managed. Pitiful, I know, but it was the best I could do at the time. Heck, I couldn't even get it together long enough to nod my head.

_-Good enough for me._- She said, in a clerical voice,_ -It seems you are quite powerful, or at least will be once you are settled in, and it is quite hard to hide power when you are so unique, which you are. I have been asked to give you a power to better hide yourself amongst the humans. You will be able to switch between your human self and your pokemon self and even exist as both human and pokemon in separate bodies. Do you understand?-_ I swallowed.

"Pokemon…?" I asked. I would have said more, but my brain was refusing to work.

_-Yes, pokemon.-_ She said, somehow conveying a sigh through telepathy,_ -They are the dominant life form in most of this universe, although not on the world you will be going to. There, humans are the dominant being and are unique to that world. Must I explain what a Pokemon is?-_ I shook my head, _-Good, Do you understand the rest?-_

"More-or-less, yeah, I think so." I looked around to see if I could pinpoint the speaker, when I remembered I was probably standing on them, "So, Pokemon are real? In my universe they are just a game, a-a story to us."

_-That is the way of most universes. They are often created by the combined imagination of another universe. Some, though, are created without that input. It gets complicated.- _She paused, possibly realising that she should just get on with it,_ -Anyway, you now have the power I explained. Well, to tell the truth, I gave it to you while you slept. _She laughed at that, _Ok, shape shifting requires a lot of concentration, but don't worry, it gets easier the more times you do it and the less complicated the transformation. Becoming human should be very easy, just concentrate on how you looked before you became a Pokemon. It also helps if you make some sort of ritual to help concentrate, something simple, though, so you can do it in a pinch.-_

"Ok…" I said slowly. _Well, here goes nothing…_ I put my hands together in a prayer position, just in front of my chest, and concentrated on how I looked as a human. "Well, that sucked," I said as I opened my eyes, "nothing…" I trailed off as I looked at my hands. They were human and I even had my clothes! "SWEET!" I yelled, "That is awesome!" I tried it the other way and it was just as easy.

_-Um, ok… I guess you're more powerful than I thought…_- Said the voice, sounding slightly apprehensive, _-Well, ok then, try splitting yourself. Just focus on both forms at the same time and think of them as becoming separate. Be careful though, as it might be a bit disorientating._- I nodded, then put my hands together again and did as she instructed. It worked, but she had somewhat glazed over just _how_ disorientating it really was. It is hard to explain just how weird it felt, seeing, feeling, smelling - everything was in double. I could even feel two minds and that was the weirdest, having two minds thinking under one control. One mind wasn't controlling the other, mind you, but instead, both minds worked as one. I briefly wonder if this was how it felt to be part of a hive mind. I managed to work out how to filter out the other mind's influence and finally separated. I was now able to get a very good look at my Pokemon form. He stood more-or-less my height, give or take an inch (it is hard to tell with the hair), and, as I had guessed, my face was the yellowy cream colour I had thought it was, however, it was the eyes and ears that had me going. The colouration on the tips of each ear turned into pitch black triangle pattern, completely contrasting to the surrounding fur. My/his eyes were ice blue. My human eyes were blue too, but they were much, much darker than what I/he has. I thought about the problem I was having with describing my two selves, so I figured I ought to give my Poke-self another name.

"I was thinking…" I managed to say when I realised that both of us were saying it at the exact same time. I tried moving an arm, and my other self followed exactly. I thought about that and then came up with, what I thought was, a simple solution. I made my Poke-self move in a different way to how I was moving. It hurt like hell and I nearly gave up until I saw that it was working. I felt something snap in my mind and suddenly I was able to move my two halves independently. I, as my human self, tried speaking again and I was relieved when my poke-self didn't say anything. "I was thinking." I repeated, "I need a way to differentiate my human self from my pokemon self, how do you think I would do that?" The answer was simpler than I thought.

_-Give your pokemon self a name that's different to your human self, Dumbass.-_ I got the mental image of a hand slapping me on the back of my head. Whether my own mind conjured that up, or the creature I was standing on did, I couldn't tell. I ignored the insult and obliged. I thought for a moment, before coming up with something I thought fit.

"I shall name thee, Drake." I said, putting on an English accent and mocking a medieval style of speech.

"Thank you, kind sire." Drake replied with a bow, doing the same medieval English accent I had done. We both laughed at this, although the voice reminded us we were still laughing at our own joke and we quickly stopped.

_-That isn't all, though. We have agents on the planet that are registering you as a trainer as we speak. We took the liberty of doing a bit of research and agreed that this is the best course of action for you.- _She said, sounding rather smug about it, _-We will need a name for your Pokemon self's specie, as it is quite unique.-_

"Um… yeah sure." I looked at Drake, _what would be a good name for his specie? Well, he kinda looks like a lion, or some sort of big cat. He definably has a feline look to him, that's for sure. Although, I just can't get over that Lucario aspect. Hey, I know, how about a Liger? Hmmm, maybe a slightly different spelling… Wait Syther is derived from sai, with a 'y' instead of 'ai'. I could go Lyger, then. Yeah, that's it._ "How about Lyger? L-Y-G-E-R." I said, spelling it out.

_-Ok, that shall be your specie's name.-_ She said, the next bit caught me off guard, though,_ -What shall you call your evolution?-_

"Evolution?!" I exclaimed, that thought hadn't even crossed my mind.

"I can evolve?!" Drake also exclaimed, completely mirroring my own thoughts and feeling. (Although, it is hardly surprising seeing as he is me and I am him only in another body – oh great I've gone cross-eyed.)

_-Well, of course._- The voice said, obviously thinking we were idiots for not considering it, _-And it will need a name. Look, I need to get this stuff down pat before I send you guys off into the world, otherwise you'll raise suspicion. Although with the way you act, I'd be surprised if you'd last ten minutes down there before someone figures you out. And would you PLEASE fuse back into one being, it is rather odd feeling seeing the same soul in two separate bodies and I'd rather it would stop.-_

"Oh, um… ok, I can do that." I concentrated and he disappeared into a red light that flowed into my body. Something in the back of my mind compared it to the flash from a pokeball, but nothing else came of it. "So, a new specie? Can you tell me anything about what he'd look like?"

_-No, it is as big a mystery to me as how you got here in the first place._- She sighed, _-But, I can tell you that the humans would consider him a Dark/Fire type and that he'd be similar in structure to your current form.-_

"Ah, well…" My mind was blank. I seriously couldn't think of anything, nothing at all. I'm usually good at naming things, but now – nothing. It was a few minutes before my train of thought ended up here: _Damn it! Just think of something. Wait… Darkness and fire…? What about a demon then? Aha, I know!_ "Efrit. E-F-R-I-T, at least I think that's how it is spelt. He was a fire demon from Arabic legend in my universe, but I don't know much more than that."

_-Very well then._- There was a pause, then, _-It was good meeting you, but hopefully I won't have need to see you again. Goodbye._- And that was that. I suddenly found myself within a bubble of sorts and being flung through space. It was a very exhilarating feeling, yet still maintaining a hit of control; it was like the feeling you get when you ride a rollercoaster. I realised that I hadn't even get to say goodbye; I didn't even get the creature's name for crying out loud. But those thoughts were put aside when I saw _it_: the Earth. I first noticed it as a blue dot, but it rapidly grew bigger as I hurtled towards it. It is a strange, peaceful feeling seeing your Homeworld from the outside. Unfortunately, I didn't get to enjoy it for too long. I soon hit the atmosphere and everything turned bright red. Actually, that's not entirely true; I could have sworn I had seen some blue in there. Anyway, that too quickly left as I began to slow down. Of course, my luck had yet to even kick in, so I definably didn't land softly. In fact, I reckon the bubble sped up at the last second just to make a bigger boom when I hit. Seemingly to just drive the boot in further, the impact knocked me unconscious. And low and behold, I uttered those immortal last words that all who see their imminent doom/failure/general-bad-thing-that-they-cannot-stop minutes before I hit.

"Ah, shit."

* * *

Well, technically 'Ah' isn't a word. But, in this particular phrase, it is for some reason. Blame inconsistent language.


	4. Chapter 4

**Authors Notes: **Yep, I'm back. For how long? I dunno ^^; Anywho, I've had to re-write this chapter, so enjoy ^^

* * *

_Did you feel that, Shak'ra?_

_**Yes Malikai.**_

_We must begin the preparations…_

_**Agreed, I shall call forth the council.**_

---

A few things pulled me out of my sleep. There was something under my back, something soft, yet hard at the same time. It was rather uncomfortable. The second was the combined presence of my bladder and stomach swearing at me, but they could be ignored for a few minutes more at least. The thing that woke me up was the constant nudging at my shoulder. I heard a voice, but couldn't make out just what it had said.

"Go away sis, Markey wants more sleep." I said rolling over, then banging my head on the ground after rolling off what ever it was I was sleeping on.

"_Silly, I'm not your sister…" _The voice giggled. It sounded odd, like what I was hearing wasn't really what I was hearing, if that makes _any _sense what-so-ever. _"Are you ok?"_

I groaned something unintelligible as I got up and then noted a weight on my back as I did so. Without turning to the source of the strange voice, I reached around and found I was wearing a back pack. _Odd,_ I thought, then immediately dismissed it. _Odd things have been_ _happening all day, why should this be any different?_ Then it hit me. Well, ok, two things did actually. First was my location and the realisation that what had happened _had happened._ The second was a small stone.

I turned towards the source of the stone and gasped at what I saw right in front of me. She looked like a little girl about two feet tall, the same height as my sis. She had green hair, part of it hanging in front of her face and two pony-tails either side. They seemed to be held up by two over sized orange hair clips. Her skin was very pale and her eyes were crimson, prompting me to think she might be an albino. She wore what looked like a pure white ballerina dress with green stockings. She would have looked cute had her face not been twisted in a look of pure annoyance.

"_I asked you a question, human. Just because you can't understand me doesn't mean you can just ignore me!"_ She growled, picking up another rock. I rose up my hands in surrender.

"Ok, ok, sorry, jeeze." I said, attempting to calm her. Then what she had said sunk in, "Wait, why did you say I can't understand you? I can hear you perfectly fine."

The rock she was holding dropped. Her look of annoyance turned to one of confusion, then shock, _"… You can understand me…? You understand my language!?"_

"Uh, yeah… why…" I paused then, as, somehow, I managed to put two and two together and got three and my sleep addled brain didn't help any, "Wait… No, you can't… You're a Kirlia? A real Kirlia…?" Anime and 2D sprites do not do justice. She looked to all the world like a real human girl of about the age of six, albeit with green hair and very pale skin…

"_Ah, yeah, last time I checked I was…"_ She gave me an odd look. I felt something like a tap inside my head and her face turned once more to shock, _"I… I can't hear your thoughts…" _She stuttered, _"What… what the hell?"_

I was rather miffed at that, "What gives you the right to go routing through my mind, eh?!" I yelled. Well, what did you expect me to say? I just found out that someone tried to invade my private thoughts – they're private damn it! I shook my head and then slung my back pack around in front of me, deciding it would be a good idea to have a look through it, to see what I had. The Kirlia, on the other hand, had taken a step back. She was trembling, scared. Of what I didn't know and when I saw her like that, I glanced behind me in case there was some huge creature about to eat us both. Once more safe in the knowledge that we were still alone, I turned back to her.

"What's wrong with you?" I asked, probably sounding a bit rude. She muttered an apology, then turned and ran off. _Great,_ I thought, _I just scared off someone who might be able to help. Smart._ I sighed, shook my head and began routing around my backpack. I noted that it mostly contained a whole heap of little blue balls. There was also a blanket, some empty food containers, six red and white balls, a pokedex and a necklace. I pulled out the necklace, considering it odd that there would be one in here at all. It was a simple, thin gold chain attached to a small ruby in the shape of a ball. On closer inspection, it looked like a pokeball, like the other balls in my pack. I put the necklace on, hiding it beneath my shirt and reached in for one of the blue balls. I had never seen a blue ball before and the fact that there were so many begged the question: What are they for? Seeing as there was no better alternative, I, after a bit of struggle trying to figure the damn thing out, opened one of them.

A bright red light spilled forth and condensed to form a tent. Well, that answered that question; the blue ones were item balls. Recalling the tent, once more with a bit of a struggle (what? I have absolutely no idea what I was doing!), I slung the pack over my back once more and headed off.

---

It didn't take me long to find another human around these parts. There was a guy, about my age, maybe a little younger, standing next to an Alakazam. He was shouting at someone else and he wasn't happy.

"You worthless piece of shit! How dare you run from me?!" He yelled. _What is going on here?_ "Looks like I am going to have to teach you a lesson, wretch." There was the sound of a slap as he struck who ever he was talking too.

"_No, please, I'm sorry!"_ Came the hidden reply. I knew that voice! It was the Kirlia from before, _so that must be her trainer…_ There was a cry and I was torn from my thoughts in time to see the bloke lay into her with a hard kick, likely to the ribs from the sound of the snap. I winced, _why isn't she protecting herself?_ The answer came from the Alakazam, his eyes were glowing, which meant he was the one holding her in place. I couldn't just sit back and watch this, I had to act.

"Oi, Asshole!" I yelled. It got his attention and he turned to face me. He looked like a complete tool; faded blue jeans, white T-shirt, sleeveless jacket and a great, big, gold chain (definably a fake) that said 'Playa'; everything about him screamed 'wannabe'. I rubbed my eyes at his poor fashion sense (not that I have much either, but it was damn well better than his was), sighed and got to the matter at hand. "What the hell do you think you are doing to that Kirlia!"

"I'm'a teaching this bitch some 'o my ground rules. This worthless wretch shoulda evolved by now." He sneered, "What's it too ya? She's my pokemon, I'll do what I want with her!"

"Well, if she is so worthless, why don't you release her?" I asked.

"Cause that is what she wants! If I do that, then how would that look for me? I'd be scorned as a quitter, no better than she is." He said, that sneer still saddling his mouth like a diseased worm.

"Ok then, how about you give her to me?" If I could get her off this guys hands then…

"No bloomin' way! Unless you're willing to trade for her and have something I want, then no deal. Fool." I sighed and thought about it for a moment. Maybe there was another way…?

"How's 'bout we battle for her? One on one, winner takes the Kirlia." This ought to get him. People like him can never back down from a challenge and, besides, if he did back out it counts as a forfeit and I still get her either way. A win-win situation, I think.

His sneer grew bigger, "Sure thing, I accept. Alakazam, show this poser who's boss." I grinned, remembering what the thing that had transported me here had said and sent out Drake. I noted that the light came from the ruby now, rather than straight from my chest. I'd have to look at that later…

---

I knew what Mark wanted; having a shared mind has its rewards. I looked down to the Kirlia we were fighting over and through my better sight I could she this wasn't the first time this had happened. She had scares under her clothes and one of her head pieces was chipped. One or more of her ribs had broken from this most recent abuse and already bruises had begun to form. I looked back to the four foot Alakazam and grinned. _Nothing but psychic attacks, this should be easy enough considering I'm part dark type. Or does that come after evolution…?_

There was a ping as our bewildered opponent scanned me with his pokedex. The metallic reply sounded out, loud and clear. "Lyger, the unknown pokemon. These pokemon are extremely rare and very little is know about them. They have been observed to be distantly related to Lucarios and have many of the same attacks and characteristics. What is known is they are, at least in part, fire type." _So, I'm not unique, just very, _very_ rare. _I felt somehow both disappointed and relieved at the same time. Gotta love ambivalence.

"Ha, this should be easy enough. A fighting type, seeing as it is related to Lucarios." He grinned, "Fine then. Alakazam, Psychic!"

His eyes glowed like when he was holding down the Kirlia before and I realised that was the same attack he'd used on her. I felt a tingle, but nothing happened. "_Huh_?" I asked out loud, dimly aware that I wasn't speaking human, "_Meh, if he can't hit me, then I'll hit him!_" I ran forwards and, taking the Alakazam off guard, punched it smack on the nose.

"_You little pip squeak! How did you manage that!?"_ He asked, staggering back and clutching at his bleeding, and possibly broken, nose.

"_Dunno," _I said truthfully, "_I guess I am part dark after all. Cool."_ I then kicked down at his feet, knocking him off balance and making him fall on his rear. _"And they say Alakazams are the most powerful non-legendary psychics in the world. Heck, a retarded Magicarp could have seen that kick coming."_ That last bit was to just make him angry. An angry opponent makes mistakes more than a calm one.

His trainer had other ideas, however. Seeing my tactic, he shouted an order, "Alakazam, use Calm Mind!" _No freaking way! I didn't do that so he could just calm down again!_ Before the Alakazam even had time to register his trainer's command, I kicked him below the belt. Ok, maybe it wasn't very fair, but it worked. Instead of Calm Mind, he started firing off Psybeams in all directions, trying to hit me. Most did, actually, but none fazed me. Go dark powers!

I ran at him, razing my fist to strike. I felt an odd sensation and when I hit Alakazam's face once more, I was shocked to find my fist was on fire. It wasn't burning though; I guessed my fur and skin were fire proof. Unfortunately, due to me being rather distracted by my hand _being engulfed in flame_, the Alakazam gave up on psychic attacks and managed a rather nice punch to my gut, forcing me to stagger back. I looked up to see that I had burnt off a large patch of his fur with my last attack and boy was he pissed.

Completely ignoring his trainer now, the psychic ran at me and suddenly those spoons took on a completely new edge. It seems those spoons are _sharp_. I winced as the strike bit into my arm, but not deep, thankfully. I retaliated, spurred slightly by anger myself, by grabbing him by the neck and throwing him into the ground, holding him there. With quick blasts of fire (I have absolutely _no_ idea how I did that…) I forced the humanoid cat to drop its spoons. I finished it with a quick blow to the head, knocking it out. I stood and gave the Alakazam a good kick to make sure it was out before walking back to Mark and becoming one with him once more.

---

"Well, I look's like that Kirlia is mine now." I grinned. We had done well, but we'd have to look at training later. I realised with a start that that Alakazam would have had to have been at least level 40, if it knew Psychic. I wondered just how strong Drake was, when I reminded myself he had been immune to psychic attacks. I put him around about 20, at the least, if he had taken down the Alakazam so quickly, probably more for all I knew.

"Fine, take her. She is of no use to me anyway." He said, his voice laden with so much poison it could have killed a Zangoose and if looks could kill, the one he was giving me now would have obliterated half the planet. He recalled his Alakazam and chucked me another of his pokeballs, hers I assumed. I looked to the Kirlia to find she had passed out and, minimising the ball and shoving it into one of my pockets, seeing as I didn't have a trainer's belt, I picked her up in my arms. For some reason I didn't want to put her into the ball. I turned back to the trainer, but he was already way ahead of me,

"The nearest Poke' Centre is about twenty minutes walk back that way." He shoved a thumb over his shoulder and then began to walk past me up the road. I didn't question his thinking, seeing as how powerful his Alakazam was, I didn't doubt he had others in his possession. I thanked him and walked in the direction he'd told me.

---

I ran most of the distance, cutting the travel time by half. That and it was all down hill. True to his word, there it was; a great, big white building with a huge sign of a red cross with a pokeball in the centre above the automatic doors. The building, despite being whitewash in colour, seemed to have been built with care for the environment, standing on stilts and seemingly blended into the rest of the forest. I wondered if this was near Fortree City and then it crossed my mind as to whether Fortree City actually existed at all…

I shook my head of these thoughts, as they were not important now. I walked in and found the place rather deserted; there was no one here at all. I called out as I approached the counter, there was an incomprehensible reply and, after a few moments, a woman dressed in a nurses' garb stepped out from a back room. She was maybe about mid-twenties, brown haired, blue-eyed and freckled. She was actually rather pretty, so not like the anime Nurse Joys.

The nurse took one look at me, then at the Kirlia in my arms, yelled something along the lines of "Oh my god", grabbed the Kirlia and ran into a back room, soon followed by a Blissey and a Chansey that had somehow appeared out of nowhere. The speed of the event took me by some surprise and I was left standing there wondering just what the heck had happened. After a few seconds, I walked past the counter and peered around to the back room. There was a whole bunch of beds, all neatly packed into rows, some of rather odd shapes. _This must be the wards,_ I thought. I wandered in to see if this was where the Kirlia had been taken. I had taken barely two steps in before I was greeted by a Chansey who literally shoved me out of the ward. I guessed that meant they weren't ready for me to see yet, so I wandered back to the main waiting area, just in front of the counter and waited.

---

I had turned on the TV as they were taking quite some time; it had been a few hours so far. I guessed the injuries had been worse than I thought, but I was confident in their abilities, so I just patiently waited. I heard footsteps behind me, so I got up and turned to see whom it was. The nurse was there and she wasn't happy.

"What the hell happened to her?" She yelled without actually razing her voice, "I have half a mind to revoke your trainer's licence if you bring me pokemon in that state! Give me one damn good reason why I shouldn't right now?!"

That little explosion took me completely off guard, I'd never been talked to like that before and it took a moment to process what she had said. "Um… well, because she is a rescue from an abusive trainer. I saw how he treated her, so I battled the trainer for the right to, err… keep her, I guess." I didn't like that phrase, but it was the best I had.

"_WHAT?!_" She was really yelling now, "You expect me to believe that?!" She calmed down then, as she heard what she had said, "That has got to be the worst lie I've ever heard. I reckon you're the one beating her up, aren't you?" She poked me with her finger, hard, as she continued, "You know what I'm going to do? I'm going-"

"Shut up and listen for a minute!" I said, taking on a quick, authoritative tone and interrupting her. "How dare you try and say that I could ever do that to anyone! I bloody well put my ass on the line to save that girl and if you DARE say that _I_ am the one who did that to her, I swear I'll…!" I trailed off, completely unsure of where I was going with that thought, and then picked up somewhere else, "The trainer I battled had a damn powerful Alakazam and if Drake wasn't a dark type, I reckon that that Kirlia probably wouldn't be alive in the next few days. Hell, I haven't known her long enough to learn her name, for crying out loud! He beat her because she refused to evolve for him and the only reason he _could _do that was because his Alakazam was too powerful a psychic for her to overcome." I took a deep breath to calm down and to get oxygen back into my system.

The nurse was stunned, but soon recovered her posture, muttered an apology and quickly darted back to the other room. I waited a few minutes before the nurse came back, "I'm sorry about what I said." She muttered, "I've just seen a few like that and you've got to be sure, you understand?" She sighed, "Your Kirlia is under sedation right now and she'll be out all night. It will take a few days for her wounds to heal enough to fight, so I suggest you keep her out of battles for at least a week. I'll book you a room here for tonight." She did something on her computer at the counter, invisible to my eyes, and handed me a key. She bowed her head quickly, pointed out where the rooms were, muttered a "Good night" and then returned to her duties.

_Good night…?_ I glanced out of the window and sure enough, it was sunset. I shrugged, then walked towards the place she had motioned too. I looked at the key, _107_ it said. I looked at each door as I passed. The numbers started at 101 and it wasn't long before I reached 107. I noted that at the end of the corridor, past room 110, was a stair way up. _That would explain the numbers… there is a second floor, probably rooms 201-210._

I scanned the room I'd been given. There were two parts, the main room, with two beds, a TV and a small, two seat table and chairs set, and a bathroom, to the left. I sighed, then took off my pack and dumped it on the table. The clock-radio beside one of the beds read out 6:04 in big red numbers. I turned on the radio, tuning it to something other the country-western, and lay down on the bed. I thought about what had been happening over the past few… what? Days? Hours? I didn't know, couldn't possibly know. It didn't help that the song on the radio was sad enough and echoed my emotions enough to make me cry my self to sleep. I hadn't cried since I was… What, eight?

---

There's another world inside of me that you may never see,  
There's secrets in this life I can't hide.  
Well, somewhere in this darkness, there's a light that I can't find  
Well, maybe its to far away, maybe I'm just blind  
Maybe I'm just blind,

So hold me when I'm here,  
Love me when I'm wrong,  
Hold me when I'm scared,  
And love me when I'm gone.

Everything I am,  
And everything in me,  
Wants to be the one you wanted me to be.  
I'll never let you down,  
Even if I could,  
Give up everything,  
If only for your good,

So hold me when I'm here,  
Love me when I'm wrong,  
Hold me when I'm scared,  
You won't always be there,  
So love me when I'm gone.  
So love me when I'm gone

When your education x-ray cannot see under my skin,  
I won't tell you a damn thing that I could not tell my friends.  
Now roaming through this darkness,  
I'm alive but I'm alone,  
Part of me is fighting this but part of me is gone.

So hold me when I'm here,  
Love me when I'm wrong,  
Hold me when I'm scared,  
And love me when I'm gone.

Everything I am,  
And everything in me,  
Wants to be the one you wanted me to be.  
I'll never let you down,  
Even if I could,  
Give up everything,  
If only for your good,

So hold me when I'm here,  
Love me when I'm wrong,  
Hold me when I'm scared,  
You won't always be there,  
So love me when I'm gone.

Maybe I'm just blind.

So hold me when I'm here,  
Love me when I'm wrong,  
Hold me when I'm scared,  
And love me when I'm gone.

Everything I am,  
And everything in me,  
Wants to be the one you wanted me to be.  
I'll never let you down,  
Even if I could,  
Give up everything,  
If only for your good,

So hold me when I'm here,  
Love me when I'm wrong,  
Hold me when I'm scared,  
You won't always be there,  
So love me when I'm gone.  
So love me when I'm gone

---

Disclaimer: Yeah, yeah. The song is 'When I'm Gone' by '3 Doors Down'.

So no suing me!


End file.
